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Trump says he’ll attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening celebration in Paris this weekend

Trump says he’ll attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening celebration in Paris this weekend
A construction worker walks on scaffoldings on the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, a few days before its reopening in Paris, on Dec. 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 03 December 2024
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Trump says he’ll attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening celebration in Paris this weekend

Trump says he’ll attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening celebration in Paris this weekend
  • Trump announced that he will be among them in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening
  • “It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral,” he wrote
Updated 03 December 2024
AP
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NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump will attend the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this weekend, his first foreign trip since the election.
The cathedral is set to reopen Saturday after more than five years of reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2019 that engulfed and nearly destroyed the soaring Paris landmark. The ceremonies being held Saturday and Sunday will be high-security affairs, with about 50 heads of state and government expected to attend.
Trump announced that he will be among them in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening.
“It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago,” he wrote. “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”
The trip will be Trump’s first abroad since he won November’s presidential election. He traveled to Scotland and Ireland in May 2023, as a candidate, to visit his local golf courses.
Trump was president in 2019 when a massive fire engulfed Notre Dame, collapsing its spire and threatening to destroy one of the world’s greatest architectural treasures, known for its mesmerizing stained glass.
Trump watched the inferno in horror, along with the rest of the world.
“So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris,” he wrote on what was then named Twitter, offering his advice to the city.
“Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!” he wrote.
French officials appeared to respond shortly after, noting that “All means” were being used to extinguish the flames, “except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral.”
Trump also spoke with Macron and Pope Francis at the time to offer his condolences and said he had offered them “the help of our great experts on renovation and construction.”
Trump and Macron have had a complicated relationship.
During Trump’s first term in office, Macron proved to be among the world leaders most adept at managing the American president’s whims as he tried to develop a personal connection built in no small part on flattery.
Macron was the guest of honor at Trump’s first state dinner and Trump traveled to France several times. But the relationship soured as Trump’s term progressed and Macron criticized him for questioning the need for NATO and raising doubts about America’s commitment to the mutual-defense pact.
As he ran for a second term this year, Trump often mocked Macron on the campaign trail, imitating his accent and threatening to impose steep tariffs on wine and champagne bottles shipped to the US if France tried to tax American companies.
After Trump won another term last month, Macron rushed to win favor with the president-elect. He was among the first global leaders to congratulate Trump — even before The Associated Press called the race in his favor — and beat UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the punch in delivering a congratulatory phone call.
“Congratulations, President @realDonaldTrump,” Macron posted on X early on Nov 6. “Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.”
Macron and other European leaders are trying to persuade Trump not to abandon America’s support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s nearly three-year invasion. European leaders hope to convince Trump that a victory by Russia would be viewed as a defeat for the US — and for the incoming president, by extension — hoping to sell him on the need to pursue an end to the war more favorable to Kyiv than he might otherwise seek.
Trump over the weekend announced that he intends to nominate real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.
The reopening of Notre Dame will be an elaborate, multi-day celebration, beginning Saturday.
Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will preside at a reopening service that afternoon, banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doors with his staff to reopen them, according to the cathedral’s website.
The archbishop will also symbolically reawaken Notre Dame’s thunderous grand organ. The fire that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the huge instrument in toxic dust. Its 8,000 pipes have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned and retuned.
Macron will attend and address the VIP guests.
After the service, opera singers Pretty Yende, from South Africa, and Julie Fuchs, from France; Chinese pianist Lang Lang; Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo; Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji and others will perform at a concert Saturday evening, according to the show’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.
On Sunday morning, the Paris archbishop will lead an inaugural Mass and consecration of the new altar.
Nearly 170 bishops from France and other countries will join the celebration, along with priests from all 106 parishes in the Paris diocese. The Mass will be followed by a “fraternal buffet” for the needy.
Ile de la Cité, where the cathedral sits in the middle of the River Seine, will be blocked off to tourists for the events. A public viewing area with room for 40,000 spectators will be set up along the Seine’s southern bank.

Topics: President-elect Donald Trump Notre Dame Cathedral France

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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
Updated 5 sec ago
AFP
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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
  • The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting US-backed government in Afghanistan
  • The Afghan rulers say the court should ‘not ignore the religious and national values of people’
Updated 5 sec ago
AFP

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Topics: Haibatullah Akhundzada

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
Updated 36 min 59 sec ago
AFP
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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
  • Prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women
Updated 36 min 59 sec ago
AFP
Kabul: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time
Updated 46 min 36 sec ago
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Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time
  • Azharul Islam Khan’s clips about plants earned him a million followers on social media
  • He introduces them to indigenous Bangladeshi flora species and basics of plant medicine
Updated 46 min 36 sec ago
SHEHAB SUMON

DHAKA: When Azharul Islam Khan’s father gave him bougainvillea stems to grow, it marked his first experience tending to plants — a lesson that 40 years later would shape his social media fame in Bangladesh.

Khan was just 14 when his adventure with botany began. Unfamiliar with how to properly water the colorful ornamental vines, he lost two of the stems he tried to grow, but another two survived and blossomed.

“One was red, and the other was white. It was very inspiring when the two branches stayed alive, and I felt amazed,” Khan told Arab News at Zinda Park in Dhaka, surrounded by various tree and flower species, many of which have been featured in his online classes.

The classes are unlike traditional botany courses. Khan keeps his videos short and simple, focusing on the knowledge that he believes everyone should possess to understand plant life, know the basics of botanical medicine, and appreciate biodiversity.

His classroom is open to all, regardless of their academic background, and more than 1 million people have followed him on Facebook since he started regularly sharing his clips in 2023.

The videos often go viral and many have gained millions of views.

A pharmacist by training and profession, Khan also holds a degree in botany from the University of Dhaka.

“I like nature and plants and trees from my childhood. It’s my passion ... and I learned it from my father,” he said.

“When I see a plant, a flower, how it blooms, how it survives, it is amazing. When I walk and observe the flowers and plants growing, I feel pleased. And it is very important not only for me. It is very important for all the people ... Plants always support our wildlife. If wildlife remains alive, then us, humans, we will remain alive.”

In 2023, Bangladeshi researchers published a red list of plants, which showed that over the past few decades the country has lost seven flora species. Some 127 are currently endangered and 262 are considered vulnerable.

Khan believes that 30 of them are nearly extinct.

“If we don’t take special care of these species, within a very short time they will disappear in our country. So, we need to take care of these plants,” he said.

“We need indigenous plants ... local plants are very important for local nature.”

His videos spread awareness on the importance of various species for the entire ecosystem and for the individual lives of his students.

“I want to make them learn how to grow plants, how important it is for human life,” he said.

“I am trying to do this for the nation, for the future generations, for Bangladesh.”

The videos find appeal among his followers as they offer practical knowledge too.

“I watch brother Azhar’s videos regularly. The best part is that his videos are short — one and a half minutes, two minutes, or three minutes long. I like this style very much,” Mohammad Zakir Hossain, a shopkeeper from Narayanganj, told Arab News.

“Many plants grow all around us. But we have no idea about the benefits of these plants. I came to know about their medicinal values and their names. It’s a great gain for me.”

Topics: botany Bangladesh

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US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP
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US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief
  • 538 illegal immigrant criminals arrested, “hundreds” deported by military aircraft
  • Trump had promised crackdown on illegal immigration during election campaign
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP

WASHINGTON: US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump’s second administration, his press secretary said late Thursday.
“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding “hundreds” were deported by military aircraft.
“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept,” she said.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On Thursday Newark city mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “raided a local establishment... detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant.”
The mayor said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran, “this egregious act is in plain violation” of the US Constitution.
An ICE post on X said: “Enforcement update ... 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged.”
New Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were “deeply concerned” about the Newark raid by immigration agents.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” they said in a joint statement.
Trump has vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” impacting an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”
His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed during Trump’s first presidency, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
Earlier in the week the Republican-led US Congress green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
Trump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal migration was “poisoning the blood” of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP
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With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan
  • Many Taliban edicts are not followed in rest of Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders
  • Taliban first banned girls from public secondary classes in 2022 followed by universities the next year 
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP

HONG KONG: The Taliban authorities that rule Afghanistan have imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law on the population, heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
This week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.
The government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under Sharia law, but many of the edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
The United Nations has called it a “gender apartheid,” and no country has formally recognized the government since they swept to power in a lightning but largely bloodless military offensive in 2021.
Taliban authorities banned girls from public secondary classes at the start of the new school year in 2022.
A year later, universities were also closed to women.
The last options for education — midwifery and nursing — were banned from teaching women late last year.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education and the move has been widely criticized by Muslim leaders — including the Saudi-based Muslim World League.
Taliban authorities have made it increasingly difficult for women to work in a bid to keep them segregated from men.
While they held positions throughout the civil service of the foreign-backed government ousted by Taliban insurgents, women have been mostly been fired, forced to stay home, and have had their pay slashed.
Officially, women can no longer work for NGOs and the United Nations apart from in education and health, although the ban has not been strictly enforced.
Women are allowed to work from home or in women-majority businesses, such as textiles.
Private businesses can employ women, but in offices that are supposed to be segregated.
In cities, where women once generally already wore modest clothing and headscarves, huge billboards and posters on shop windows order them to cover their hair, faces and their bodies with a long cloak and face mask.
Women rarely appear on television, and many journalists have been pushed off screen.
They are banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms, while baths and salons have been closed down.
Women traveling long distances must be accompanied by a male chaperone.
In one of the latest orders, women cannot sing or recite poetry in public, and their voices and bodies must be “concealed” outside the home.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down and their offices taken over by the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban authority’s morality police.

Topics: Afghan women afghan women's rights Afghan Taliban

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